The camping control bylaw consultation process was publicly notified on Saturday, 22 July 2017, in the Otago Daily Times.

We have been following the nightmare tale of freedom campers at Warrington Domain —the council did not enforce its existing Bylaw 23 last summer. Local residents were no longer able to use the messed up, vehicle covered village green for pleasure and recreation. Instead, DCC had allowed the whole domain to be turned into a muddy rutted car park. Over summer 1000s of freeloading campers were subsidised by Dunedin ratepayers at roughly $10.00 per head per night. Disgraceful. An appalling and gutless lack of care and management shown by the council.

AFTER ALL THIS . . . .
It is a pleasure to note (finally, yes!) that DCC’s preferred option for bylaw adoption is sensible and workable. Please support this option.

There are 3 options to choose from.

█ The best option is DCC’s preferred option : a ban on people sleeping in cars and restricting freedom camping to self-contained campervans only.

This is the only responsible option – it will reduce camping issues at domain grounds, such as Warrington and Ocean View.

The other 2 options are messy, they require more work and will not be easy to enforce or manage.

█ Please fill in the form at the link below and select:– Option 1. “Limit freedom camping to certified self contained vehicles only”.

Warrington stakeholders, in particular, see no reason to comment on the “criteria to apply to sites” questions. Just leave them blank.

They recommend you note the following in the Comments section:
– Area at Warrington for certified campers to be limited in area to accommodate maximum 10 vehicles per night.
– No non-self-contained vehicles.
– No freedom camping anywhere else in Warrington other than a small designated area in the domain.

Please complete the form and share this information with friends and colleagues.

At last DCC has done something right by preferring Option 1.

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DUNEDIN CITY COUNCIL

Proposed Camping Control Bylaw 2017Closes: 09/08/2017

DCC is asking the community for feedback on a proposed change to freedom camping in the Dunedin area. They would like your views on whether DCC should continue to provide freedom camping for both certified self-contained vehicles and non-certified self-contained vehicles.

The Statement of Proposal outlines changing the current bylaw to provide camping areas for certified self-contained vehicles only.

Two other options have also been considered and these are:
– to continue to provide for both certified self-contained vehicles and non-certified self-contained vehicles
– to provide extra areas for non-certified self-contained vehicles based on a set of criteria.

The proposed change is in response to the impacts of overcrowding at the two existing unrestricted camping areas at Warrington and Ocean View, and because of changes to the current standard for certified self-contained vehicles.

Freedom camping throughout Dunedin is very popular, especially between November and May. The focus of this bylaw review is to make the bylaw more robust and workable, based on two seasons’ worth of feedback and observation.

Following community feedback and hearings, the Council will consider the submissions and decide on any changes. DCC hopes to have the new bylaw in place in October/November.